10
Oct
2017
By Calvin at 11:43 GMT, 6 years ago
I thought I’d give an update on how things are doing down at the coalface of the Crime Prevention Website (TCPW).
During the past year I’ve been working on a few other projects, which has meant less time on the site. I nevertheless do my best to keep it up-to-date and post up crime prevention news stories of interest.
Statistically, new Google search algorithms and the loss of some of the links from police services have seen a small reduction of visitors to the site. This is something I’m working to address as there’s not much point operating a free resource site for independent crime prevention advice if people out there aren’t finding it. I should also point out that TCPW is still rather unique, which is why it’s maintained its No.1 position on Google.co.uk for searches for ‘crime prevention’ and ‘crime prevention news’. I might add that it’s also No.1 and page 1 for lots and lots of other relevant security questions too.
Ben’s got to do some rebuilding of the site in the forthcoming months too and one of these improvements will be to make it more ‘mobile friendly’ as at least 35% of visitors find us on their phones.
We’re still getting lots of referrals each day from other websites and the last check revealed that we’re well past the 2,000 links mark with one or two new links being added each day. If you’re not linking to TCPW then please do and if you have and you haven’t told us about it please send me a message, because we often link back, especially if you’re operating a Neighbourhood Watch site.
Since we launched back in 2012 one-point-six million individuals have visited TCPW and between them they’ve read almost 3 million pages. I am delighted with these figures as they demonstrate the value of the website and the need by the public (and the police) to access an independent and free source of security advice.
All of my news stories are automatically Tweeted and placed on our Facebook page and on Google + and depending on the story it’s pleasing to see they get re-tweeted and shared quite often. Incidentally, twenty percent of my Twitter followers are police. We also regularly receive emails of thanks and encouragement, which I list on our testimonial page. Here’s a selection:
“Hello. I've just discovered your website and am impressed. THANK YOU for creating this! It will be much valued by many people - including myself. With all good wishes” - Anne de Veauce
“I am the (equivalent of) the Force Crime Prevention Officer for the Royal Military Police in Germany. I both conduct and quality control a lot of Crime Prevention work here, and have found this website to be an invaluable tool in assisting me [to] do so. The advice is both practical and sensible, without commercial motives. Please keep up the excellent work.” - Andy Moorhouse Royal Military Police
‘A former police officer, Calvin Beckford, is massively experienced in, and passionate about, preventing crime in the built environment and his website, www.thecrimepreventionwebsite.com, is well worth a visit.’ - Quote taken from: Page 86 of The Handbook of Security 2nd Edition Published by Palgrave and MacMillan 2014. Edited by Martin Gill Professor of Criminology
“Definitely worth spending 5 mins doing this Home Security Survey - DIY (Via Twitter)” - Councillor James Barber
“Thank you very much for your email. I appreciate the additional recommendations included in your reply. I must say your website is an excellent resource for security issues. Pleased that I discovered it. Thanks again.” - James Williamson Starc Architects
Finally, we’re very close to hitting 7,000 completed Home Security Surveys. As some of you will know we collect the very interesting (anonymous data) from these surveys and periodically publish the results on our news page. The results prove to be very helpful and inform our news items and advice pages. They also tell us something about TCPW and the usefulness of the Home Security Survey.
For example:
- 15% of people conducting the home security survey live on their own
- 9% of respondents don’t have home contents insurance
- 5% of respondents had been burgled within 6 weeks of taking the survey
- 18% of respondents have lived at their address for less than one year
- 98% of respondents regard the survey as being useful – 70% regard the survey as being very or extremely useful
- 94% of respondents would recommend the website to others – 24% are extremely likely to do so.
So, all pretty good news, but there are still areas for improvement and that’s what Ben and I will be working on in the next few months.
In the meantime, we’re getting rather close to the clock change when our nights will be drawing in much earlier than we’ve been used to. This means that dwellings will begin to stand out in the dark if light timers aren’t being used. So please dig out those plug-in timers and reprogram your light switch timers to help make your place look occupied when it isn’t. This is especially important if you’re one of the millions of people who come home from work to an empty house after dark. Remember too that burglary always goes up at the end of October as criminals find it so much easier to find unoccupied homes.
